Almost 90 per cent of the 9,000 or so who took part in a Questions and Answers telephone poll supported the jailing of Liam Lawlor. This was the first sign of public support for the jailing, and probably explains why Bertie Ahern went into hiding for the rest of the week.
True, he sent an odd smoke signal to the teachers, tried briefly to reassure the farmers on BSE and kept an eye on Tony Blair's discussions in Belfast.
But on the event of the week in this State, he had nothing to say, except that he was too busy to consider John Bruton's invitation to join other party leaders urging Lawlor to resign from the Dail. Until the eleventh hour Ahern's comments on the TD, jailed for refusing to co-operate with a tribunal set up by the Oireachtas, were woolly, feeble and secondhand.
All of which revives memories of the O'Flaherty affair when Ahern, the cute hoor, sidestepped most of the responsibility and all of the blame, which was instead heaped on Cabinet colleagues and contributed to FF's heavy defeat in the South Tipperary by-election.
No doubt Mary Harney, who shared the blame, remembered more painfully than most. This time, fearing a repetition of O'Flaherty, she has set the Progressive Democrats on a different course, agreeing with Fine Gael, Labour, the Green Party and some Independents that Lawlor's position is untenable.
And last night they were belatedly joined by the Taoiseach, who finally accepted that if Lawlor continued to refuse co-operation he should quit the Dail.
Lawlor has long been close to the centre of FF power. He was the party's strategic organiser between 1982 and 1987. Ahern appointed him spokesman on arts and culture in 1994 and, after the 1997 election, to three key committees.
He was forced to resign from the Committee on Members' Interests when it came to examine the affairs of Denis Foley, who held an Ansbacher account but didn't know it. He resigned as vice-chairman of the Finance and Public Service Committee last week but is still an ordinary member and, as such, will soon have the task of examining legislation on standards in public office. He is also a member of the Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport.
Fianna Failers like to pretend that the Government set up the tribunals while the Oireachtas is responsible for the committees and their accident-prone members. So Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats take the credit for Flood and Moriarty while the Oireachtas takes the blame for Lawlor, Foley and John Ellis.
BUT, of course, it's the other way round. It was the Oireachtas, not the Government, which set up the tribunals. And it's to the Oireachtas that the tribunals will report. It's the parties that nominate committee members. And, when things go wrong, it ought to be for the parties to remove them. It was Ahern who sent Ellis to the Oireachtas committee on agriculture, Foley to the Public Accounts Committee and Lawlor to committees on finance, enterprise and members' interests.
Ahern appointed them but can't find it in his heart to remove them. His numerous defenders say that he's often a victim of guilt by association. Nonsense: this is not guilt by association, it's guilt by appointment. After all, Ahern was the Taoiseach who defied common sense and common knowledge to appoint Ray Burke to the Cabinet in 1997 and did his best to keep him there even when the evidence of his unsuitability was overwhelming.
Ahern mocks his own Government's advice to farmers on BSE by retaining Ned O'Keeffe, whose family farm holds a special meat-and-bone meal licence, as Junior Minister at the Department of Agriculture and Food. And, one by one, the members of Ahern's Cabinet creep from cover to say how sad it is that Lawlor should find himself in Mountjoy. Noel Dempsey, Joe Walsh, Dermot Ahern (twice) and Micheal Martin shuffle in, like mourners at a wake.
One or two of them whisper agreement with the strong, clear voice of Mr Justice Smyth. None speaks up in forthright condemnation. Those who served under Haughey sometimes claim - it's often said on their behalf - that they didn't know what was going on; and, if they had their suspicions, they had no proof.
Now, before their eyes and the eyes of the people, a member of the Oireachtas who has long been a party colleague of the Taoiseach and his Ministers is found to have deliberately refused to co-operate with a tribunal set up by the Oireachtas to examine and report on matters of public importance.
"The non-compliance was not unintentional . . . That he did so as a citizen is a disgrace. That he did so as a public representative is a scandal . . ."
This was Mr Justice Smyth's conclusion. Contempt of the High Court and the Supreme Court not only justified the imposition of a custodial sentence but demanded it. What Lawlor holds in contempt are the institutions set up by the representatives of the Irish people to protect the interests of the Irish people. What his erstwhile colleagues have done by refusing to point clearly to his contempt is to share it.
dwalsh@irish-times.ie